He gets misdirected, then when he gets to where he's supposed to be, he realizes it would have been better if he hadn't.

There's some Larry David here, but the voice is ever-more distinctly Louis C.K.'s own. The viewer simply has to accept that he knows where his comedy is going, and that while his standup has punch lines, the humor in his sketches often stems more from a cumulative impression than one-liners along the way.

As that suggests, some segments work better than others. The second episode this season has a bathroom bit that drags on a little too long, then rebounds into a very funny girlfriend exchange and wraps with a cool little joke referencing a bit from earlier in the show.

Perpetually put-upon characters have roamed the TV screen back to Jackie Gleason's Poor Soul. Louis C.K. stands tall in a place where he suggests no one really wants to be.